APRÈS NOUS LE DÉLUGE

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (9/29/08)





After their revolution in 1789, the French guillotined their feudal oppressors. While one wouldn't necessarily wish our CEO's, CFI's, and assorted ilk death on the chopping block, they certainly don't merit a $500,000.00 kiss-off.

After the defeat of the French army by the Germans in 1757 and a subsequent financial collapse, Mme. de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV, is quoted as saying, "After us the deluge." So it is in 2008. After 8 years of feudal Republicanism, the deluge.

As with the French feudal aristocracy, our modern Republican feudal aristocracy, beginning with Ronald Reagan, has exploited the American middle-classes and the poor, enriching themselves at the expense of the people with tax welfare for the rich and their corporations. Called the "trickle-down" theory, it runs that as the rich get richer, their excess riches will trickle down to the middle-classes and the poor, like the economic theory of the French feudal aristocracy prior to the Revolution. The operative word is "greed."

Marie-Antoinette, the queen consort to Louis XVI, just before the revolution on hearing the people had no bread, is reputed to have said, "Let them eat cake." Well, after eating Republican cake for 8 years, it's time for some revolution. As Thomas Jefferson said, "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing."

Rather than bail-outs and guillotines, our feudal Republican aristocrats could do hard time in the old Yuma territorial prison, harvesting vegetables in the fields. In addition to doing penance, they might be useful.